We flew Air Asia from Bangkok Don Muang Airport
to Mandalay (1hr 55m, clock back 30 mins).
Mandalay airport is empty with no shop to even buy
any water. Air Asia provide a courtesy coach
into Myanmar which takes about 1 hour. The
road is a dual carriageway which is empty
of any traffic until you reach Mandalay.
The bus crew dropped us off and kindly spoke
with a taxi driver to tell him of our final
destination.

We arrived at RV Thurgau Exotica II at 2pm
and Rainer, Cruise Director, kindly let us
onboard to our cabin. The other 22 guests
arrived at 5.15 complete with their sickness
bug! Upon arrival, most were cabin bound grateful
of the clean, spacious bathroom. 6 of us
had dinner but the final 4 of the group departed
feeling ill, leaving us dining alone. The
prime suspect of the food poison/virus was
the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel in Yangon where
they all stayed the previous evening. The
following day, there were only 3 of the group
(plus us) on the morning tour. Many of the
group missed most or all of the 2 days tours
in Mandalay.

Few tourists have ventured the length of
the river from Mandalay to Yangon and even
fewer on the stretch from Pyay to Yangon
(the cruises travelling north start at Pyay).
It was a rare glimpse into the Asia of yesteryear,
where Buddhism remains the way of life and
both men and women wear traditional longyis.
Our 1000 km cruise was the perfect, most
stress-free way to see Myanmar as it begins
to emerge from years of repression and isolation.

Mostly the sandy coloured River Irrawaddy
(Ayeyarwady) is about 500m wide but often
only a few feet deep and is notorious for
its whirlpools and submerged sandbars. The
main channel is not marked; it shifts depending
on how the sand moves after the monsoon rains.
With no modern navigational aids the boat
is navigated by the behaviour of the water
and occasionally a member of the crew dipping
a white, yellow and blue banded pole into
the water and calling up the depth. Throughout
the 1000 mile journey we had 11 different
pilots.

Days on the river were never dull as we cruised
past the villages, gold and white stupas
on the hillsides and temporary huts built
on the riverbanks, whilst watching the assortment
of boats, the fishermen, the farmers ploughing
the silt-rich riverbanks to plant peanuts
as the water level falls, and the people
washing their clothes, hair and teeth in
the river.

The primary tourist sights are the countless
temples and stupas and your eyes start to
glaze over them towards the end of the trip.
Our shore exclusions were interesting and
varied including numerous villages, workshops,
monasteries and markets using all kinds of
transport including horse and cart, rickshaws
and trishaws. Markets presented unfamiliar
fruit and vegetables arranged like works
of art. Incense and smoke from the street
cooking fills the air. In the larger cities
the streets are crammed with spluttering
trucks, overloaded bicycles, mopeds, tuk-tuks
and pickups, red-robed monks and women carrying
heavy loads on their heads.

Foreign tourists are still a novelty in the
area and the warm welcome we got was very
touching. They were just as keen to see us
as we were to see them as we exchanged greetings
of ‘Mingalabah’ (a form of hello)
to most people that you pass.The people have great charm and natural warmth
and were only too happy to pose for a photo.

At one temple in Bagan a lady took me to
a toilet facility and when I offered her
money as a thank you, she refused. Likewise,
a fellow traveller didn’t want to buy
a post card from a boy so offered him some
money but the boy refused. In contrast, our
first initiation with a beggar boy happened
at Pyay further down river towards Yangon,
but generally there was next to no begging,
compared with almost all other places we’ve
been to.

1.5M tourists were expected in 2013 up from
816K in 2011 and 1M in 2012, approximately
half come in from the borders and half from
flights into Yangon. 15% of tourists are
from Thailand, 12% China, 8% Japan, with
others from Korea, Malaysia, France, Singapore
and the UK.

While Myanmar may now claim to have an elected
civilian government, it would still appear
to be a country not free from oppression.
All of the land is owned by the government
and much of the larger private businesses
are owned or controlled by the military.

The Mandalay people are hopeful of change
with the release of Aung Sang Suu Kyi and
her welcome of ‘responsible tourism’
to help with the future development of the
country. Mobile phones, internet, ATM’s
and renovated or new hotels are cropping
up so one hopes that the process of change
will not be too fast thus enabling the people
to adapt. As a comparison of 20 years ago,
a sim card for a phone cost $8,000 and is
now $150. Petrol was $12 for a gallon, restricted
to 10 litres a day so there was a big black
market and now it is $5. A second hand Japanese
import car was $60,000 to $100,000 and now
it is about $10,000 however, imports are
restrict to about 30,000 a year and they
have to be left-hand drive. There are many
old vehicles on the roads.

In a few years, I wonder what Myanmar will
look like and how the people will have changed.
Will that little boy and the old lady still
refuse to accept the donation offered to
them? Will tourists still exchange greetings
of ‘Mingalabah’?

Freedom comes at a cost.

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Life in Myanmar

Education is compulsory and free up to the
age of 9 then the family has to pay –
the villagers pay $50 each year, whereas
the city dwellers pay $30 each month. 90%
of city students and 50% of villages students
go to university. After the age of 9 many
go to the monastery for further education.
Every child must do a 3 day trial –
see Buddhism.

Marriage is generally after at least 3 years
of courtship and the girl must be a virgin.
There is no religious ceremony, just a celebration
gathering which must include 7 neighbours
from all directions – north, south,
east and west.

The government owns all the land and it is
a lottery of who can farm it in any year.
The unlucky farmers will work for the lucky
farmer and the following year will be a different
lucky farmer so everyone then works for him.

20 to 30% of income is donated to the temples.

Death – the body is kept in the home
for 3 days before being cremated, after which
the ashes are floated in a pot on the river.
On the 7th day the monks are given a donation. A further
donation is given after 1 month and then
annually.